BEIJING: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will attend the global climate change summit in Copenhagen next month, the foreign ministry announced here on Thursday.

"Premier Wen Jiabao will attend the 15th conference of signatories to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change," ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters, giving no details on Wen's itinerary.

Dozens of world leaders are set to gather for the UN-sponsored talks in the Danish capital from December 7-18 to seek a successor to the Kyoto Protocol on limiting the greenhouse gases blamed for climate change.

The White House said on Wednesday that US President Barack Obama would attend the climate change conference on December 9 en route to collect his Nobel Peace Prize in the Norwegian capital Oslo. Related article: Obama to head to Copenhagen

China and the United States are the world's number one and two sources of greenhouse gases and are considered critical to any progress at Copenhagen.

The White House said Obama would at the summit offer to cut US greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020.

Chinese President Hu Jintao pledged in September to curb emissions as a percentage of economic growth by a "notable margin" but gave no firm figure.